Chinese couple's life disrupted for probing quake's death toll

April 19, 2009|By Barbara Demick, Tribune Newspapers

HANWANG, China — In the 11 months since China's devastating earthquake, Wang Tingzhang and his wife, Liu Shengying, have been transformed from docile, law-abiding citizens into defiant troublemakers, at least in the eyes of authorities.

Along the way, they've been kicked, punched, wiretapped, tailed and detained.

Their offense? Asking too many questions about what happened to their only child, an 18-year-old girl who was buried under the rubble of her high school in the May 12 earthquake.

In the early weeks after the quake, Beijing was widely applauded for its efficiency, compassion and openness in handling China's worst natural disaster in decades. But since then, the curtain has fallen.

Even the death toll is shrouded in secrecy. Although about 70,000 people are believed to have died, the government has yet to release an official toll. DNA testing that could identify thousands of victims has stalled, with no explanation from authorities.

The possibility that corruption might have been involved in the building of schools is the most politically sensitive aspect of the earthquake postmortem. Parents and researchers asking about schools that collapsed have been detained and harassed.

Wang Tingzhang's soft voice rose as he described the past 11 months.

"They pressure us. They try to control us. They follow us and listen to our phone calls," he said. "But even if they kill us, it doesn't matter because we've lost our daughter. ... We're not scared of the government anymore."

In November, the couple went to their daughter's school to meet other parents from her class and compare notes. Chatting away, they didn't realize at first that they were surrounded by police dressed in full riot gear.

They say the police herded all the parents into a waiting bus. Wang said a policeman kicked him and pushed him with his shield.

"We're going to take you to the municipal offices and they'll answer your questions," Wang says the police told them.

Instead, they were taken to the police station and locked up. They remained there for 10 hours; officers told them they couldn't go home until they signed a statement confessing they had "surrounded the school and disturbed the public order." Exhausted and famished, all the parents signed.

Since then, Wang and his wife, who is five months into a difficult pregnancy, haven't been able to get together with other parents. Every time they've tried, the police have discovered their plans.

"Now it's almost a year and I'm beginning to wonder," Wang said. "It feels like they don't want outsiders to know the death toll."